It's the most wonderful time....of the year

No not Christmas. But in Ashlyn's book, "Take your kid to work day" ranks right up there with Christmas. She has been counting down the days since last year when she went with Paul to work for the day. And rightfully so. Dreamworks outdoes themselves. She has a whole program she gets to follow including watching upcoming movie clips, creating her own computer character, lunch with Daddy and pictures with the "Character of the year". This year she is in Po's "Kung Fu Panda" group. She's super excited. And I can't wait to hear all about her fun day. 

Brandon's Birthday Interview

How old are you today? Three

What's your favorite color? Green

What do you want for your birthday? how bout.....for my birthday.... I want a new guy. And a new guy for Daddy. A batman...a very awesome batman.

What do love about church? That families can be together

What's your favorite primary song? Love is Spoken Here

What's your favorite food? Hot dogs and ketchup with hot dogs

What's your favorite treat/dessert? how bout....candy (that's all I could get out of him)

What's your favorite drink? apple juice and lemonade

What's your favorite show? Batman and Spiderman and the "frozen guy" on Batman.

Who's your favorite "guy"? Batman and Spiderman (duh!)

What's your favorite thing to do with your family? ..............

Where's your favorite place to go together?   .....................

I lost him....he won't answer me anymore. He's too busy (playfully) beating up his sister.

Oh well....Happy Birthday to my big boy Brandon. The one that made me a mom to a son. I jumped up and down for joy when I found out I was pregnant with you. I celebrated when we found out you were a boy, and I fell in love with you the moment I saw you. You have always been so sweet and so wonderful. You were a fabulously easy baby. My easiest for sure. Except you wouldn't sleep through the night until you were almost one. That was probably the hardest thing about you. I just didn't have the heart to let you "cry it out" though. You always calmed down as soon as you saw me. It was as if you just needed to know I was still there. You would cup your little hand around my neck when you were just a few weeks old. I always said you were hugging me. You still hug me that same way. You are fun and energetic and you love your family so much. You are, however, a THREE year old! Bring it on. The fits, the screaming, the fun! I've done it before. I can do it again. Love you little man.

So Proud!

He did it! And he is so very proud. Let me give the back story. We have been talking about being potty trained for a VERY long time around this house. Like since before Carter was born. But there was no way I was going to even attempt it then. So we just kept talking about it. Prepping him for him. Trying to sit on the potty even. Never had any success.  Brandon didn't care about it. He just kept telling me he will learn to go potty on the big boy potty when he "gets bigger like this"(then he would hold his arm up high above his head). Well, a month or so ago we tried a few times (on Saturdays when Paul was home) with no success. I knew he could do it, he was just scared to try. So I waited.....and waited. Then I signed him up for Summer Camp, which starts in June. Then it hit me....he HAD to be potty trained to go to Summer Camp! And voila, we had our motivation. I broke down and got a little potty seat since he was still scared of the big potty. I bought him some super cool underwear and after naptime one day, we gave it another whirl. Of course he had to go as soon as I sat down to nurse Carter (which is why I had been holding off on training him). So I told him to just sit on his new seat and see if he could do it. He was nervous, that's for sure, but he couldn't hold it anymore. And he did it! I could tell he was kind of shocked. As if he JUST realized that's what you do. Since then, it's been a breeze. He's only had one accident (at the Fish Hatchery) and he's even woken up with a dry pullup after naptime every day, and once or twice in the morning. But we aren't ready to tackle that yet. 

And now, just about three weeks since we started, he's starting to take himself sometimes. Shutting the door in my face telling me he needs "privacy". The kid cracks me up. 

What's his prize you ask? Since every kid needs a big prize for mastering such a thing. A new gun. By his request of course. He will be getting it soon. It will be a nerf gun for sure. But hey, whatever works. Plus, he is super excited he can go to Summer Camp now!

Three down...ONE to go. 

Bowling with the Fam

Every year that Spring Break rolls around, we talk about why we didn't think to have Paul take a few days off so we can do stuff together as a family. Well, this year we finally remembered. It took a little work and I had to cancel on a friend (sorry Beth) because Paul had a meeting on a day we weren't expecting, but Paul managed to take Thursday and Friday off. Originally we thought it might be fun to go up to Big Bear and stay for the night. But having a newborn (okay, a 5 month old) changed my mind on that. Instead, we just stayed home and did some fun things around town. First up was bowling. It was pretty crazy, but I must say we had a fun time. The girls were way more into it than Brandon was, which is why we've probably never gone before. They are just now getting to a good age where it is actually fun to go. We got pizza and soda and played for a good hour. The girls could have kept playing, but the boys were getting restless. Afterward, we headed over to Menchies for some Frozen Yogurt. 

The weather wasn't great on Friday. We had wanted to go on a hike and have a picnic. But instead we cleaned the house in preparation for a baby shower for a friend of mine the next morning and then we went to the mall in the afternoon. Even though it was a pretty chilled out day, the kids seemed to have a good time and I definitely enjoyed having Paul home for a couple extra days. Next year we'll have to plan something a little more exciting. 

Don't laugh at our scores. Paul and I haven't gone bowling since I was pregnant with Brandon. I was just glad to break 100.

The joy of picture taking

Granted it was 9:30 at night and my kids are NOT use to staying up that late. But we were determined to try and get a few photos of all the cousins together. 

First the babies. Carter is almost exactly 4 months older than the twins and I think at least twice their size.

Not too bad right? The babies cooperated fairly well considering none of them can really sit up. Carter was too tired to get to smile. But at least he's looking at the camera in the second shot.

Khloe is on the left and Kylan on the right. They were little angels.

Then we tried for a group shot. First Grandma is trying to console Leah because Brandon sat down by Blaike but she wanted to sit by Blaike.

We got Leah to cooperate (although not very cheerfully), but Brandon decided to be a stinker and not only would he not let Leah sit by Blaike, he didn't want her by HIM. Plus Carter is about done here.

When Leah wouldn't move over, he took matters into his own hands.

But look, now he's happy and Leah's still upset.

So we tried another approach. Leah seemed happy to have Carter, but then Brandon decided it would be fun to keep his hand in his mouth even though we asked him to move it REPEATEDLY. He wasn't budging.

Notice Blaike, Kamron, Khloe and Kylan through out all the photos. Smiling and happy. Oh and of course Ashlyn was good. I shouldn't leave her out. Oh well, good thing we live close. Lots of photo opportunities in the future. Someday we'll get good ones. Perhaps we'll try morning next time. That would probably help. At least it would help my kids anyway.

The Fish Hatchery

I was suppose to go to the zoo today with some friends. But when I got to thinking about my nursing baby and my VERY recently potty trained 2 (almost 3) year old at a crowded zoo, I changed my mind. I knew I had to take the kids somewhere today. I WANTED to take them somewhere. It is Spring Break after all. But where? Then I remembered that last year during Spring Break I went to the Fish Hatchery with my good friend Becky and we had a lot of fun. So this year I drug my 9 month pregnant friend Tina along for the ride. The weather was actually really nice (cooler than I remember it being last year. Or maybe it was the same and it only felt warmer because I was 6 or 7 weeks pregnant and COMPLETELY exhausted last year). The kids ran around for a good 30 minutes and fed all the trout. We brought picnic lunches and sat in the shade to eat. Then on the way home, we stopped at "Shave it" for a nice refreshing snow cone. Yum! It was a nice day.

And as I side note, I was very glad I didn't end up the zoo since Brandon had his first potty accident while we were at the Hatchery. It wasn't too bad, but was MUCH more manageable with no crowds and a bathroom conveniently located across the parking lot.